Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer in a recent interview commented on the fact that he passed on acquiring games like Destiny and Guitar Hero for Xbox. The CEO went on to say he’s made “some of the worst game-choice decisions” but that he ultimately has no regrets.
His comments came as part of an interview at PAX West titled “Story Time with Phil Spencer,” where the head of Xbox discussed some of his favorite games from over the years, one of which is Destiny.
Spencer said he has mixed emotions and stories around Destiny. The shooter didn’t initially click for him when he first played it, despite having a close relationship with developer Bungie, he said. He once shared a floor at Microsoft with Bungie founders Alex Seropian and Jason Jones and “learned a ton from just being around Bungie,” Spencer said.
He said Microsoft did receive a pitch from Bungie to publish Destiny, but Xbox ultimately decided not to sign-on. It would take the game’s House of Wolves expansion for Spencer to come around on Destiny.
“It’s a game that I’ll always love and a team I’ll always have a ton of affinity for,” Spencer said.
Guitar Hero was another major franchise Spencer said he initially had doubts about.
“An interesting one is when this team came down to Redmond and Alex Rigopulos, who is great, he pitches a game where they’re actually going to make plastic guitars, and they’re going to plug into consoles, and then they’re going to sell tracks where you’re going to play Simon on this guitar and I’m like, ‘Really?” Spencer said. “Do we really think that’s going to work?
“A few people played Guitar Hero,” Spencer said jokingly. “I heard that turned into a pretty good game.”
Spencer said he’s ultimately not a “regrets-type person,” and prefers to be positive and look forward when it comes to the things Xbox is currently doing, rather than shaking his first over what could have been.
“Maybe that’s a fault of mine, but I passed on so many games,” Spencer said.
It’s not the first time there has been mention of Microsoft having been in the running when it came to the developer being acquired for a second time. Bungie originally split off from Xbox back in 2007, but not before giving up the Halo IP to the house of Xbox. Former Bungie composer Martin O’ Donnell has previously said Bungie did consider going back to Microsoft, but also entertained the idea of being acquired by Sony (which would eventually acquire Bungie in 2022). Bungie wanted to own the Destiny IP, O’Donnell said, making negotiations with the two first-party companies a non-starter. The developer ultimately partnered with Activision to publish Destiny and Destiny 2, a deal that O’Donnell has said in interviews was “bad from the start.” Bungie and Activision’s publishing agreement ended in 2019.
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